A church in the Oak Lawn neighborhood of Dallas is taking a stand against Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s culture wars.
On Tuesday, Oak Lawn United Methodist Church began painting its steps in rainbow colors in response to Abbott’s order for cities to remove rainbow crosswalks on roads or risk losing state and federal funding.
Gov. Greg Abbott announced the state would withhold road funding from cities that don’t remove, what he called, “political ideologies” from city streets. The rainbow crosswalk, at the intersection of Westheimer Road and Taft Street, was painted over on the morning of Oct. 20.
Houstonians showed up to protest the removal, and four were arrested by the Houston Police Department for blocking the roadways.
The rainbow crosswalk in Houston’s Montrose neighborhood, installed in 2017, was removed Monday following Gov. Greg Abbott’s order that cities remove them or face the loss of state funds. Houston police arrested four people blocking crews from removing the crosswalk at the intersection of Taft and Westheimer.
Texas A&M University fired a children’s literature professor for discussing LGBTQ+ topics in class. A department head and dean were also removed from their administrative positions.
